The role of our Communicable Disease Program is to provide health education and consultation to health region staff, community agencies, and health professionals in the control, treatment, and management of communicable diseases.

Our program keeps statistics and records on reportable diseases according to the requirements of the Ministry of Health. The program staff work with BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), the Public Health Agency of Canada, and other health authorities to detect unusual numbers of infectious diseases from a specific strain of pathogens and investigate to determine the source of the pathogen and to limit the spread of infectious communicable diseases.

Active facility outbreaks

Stay up-to-date with the active outbreaks in our facilities, which is updated when new outbreaks are declared.

The Communicable Disease Program works to reduce the incidence and prevalence of communicable diseases in Interior Health by providing relevant public health data, information and reports to decision makers, professionals, and health-care workers in an effort to promote actions that will result in the timely prevention and control of communicable diseases throughout our region. High validity and good comparability of communicable disease data are imperative to reach this goal.

Animal and insect-borne diseases

Some diseases are spread to people from animals or insects. The best prevention against these illnesses is to take steps to minimize contact and thus lower your chances of getting sick. These can include removing the habitat that insects enjoy from your property thereby keeping the insects away from your home, or excluding animals such as mice or bats from your house to prevent coming in contact with them.